2LT International News
American climber dies on world’s fifth-highest peak in Nepal
May 12, 2025
KATHMANDU, Nepal: An American climber has died on Mount Makalu in eastern Nepal while raising money for a children’s cancer program, officials said.
It is the second fatality of the climbing season, which started in March.
Mount Makalu is the fifth-highest mountain in the world at 8,463 meters (about 28,000 feet), just below Mount Everest, which stands at 8,849 meters (29,032 feet).
The climber, 39-year-old Alexander Pancoe, died over the weekend while getting into his sleeping bag at the second high camp. He had just returned from a trip to a higher camp to help his body adjust to the altitude, according to the expedition team Madison Mountaineering.
